Eurovision Song Contest 1997

Eurovision Song Contest 1997
Host Information
Theme	N/A
Semi Final	--
Semi Final 1	--
Semi Final 2	--
Final	3 May 1997
Venue	Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Presenter(s)	Carrie Crowley, Ronan Keating
Conductor	Frank McNamara
Director	N/A
Executive Supervisor	Marie-Claire Vionnet
Host Broadcaster	RTÉ
Acts
Opening Act	N/A
Interval Act	Ronan Keating, Boyzone
Participating Countries
Delegations	25
Debuting	N/A
Returning	Italy
Withdrawing	Belgium Finland Israel North Macedonia Romania Slovakia
Voting
Voting System	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
Nul Points	Norway Tor Endresen - San Francisco Portugal Célia Lawson - Antes do adeus
Winner	United Kingdom Katrina and The Waves - Love Shine a Light
Eurovision Song Contest
Previous	1996
Next	1998

The Eurovision Song Contest 1997 was the 42nd of the long running light entertainment show, and it was held at the Point Theatre Dublin, Ireland, on 3 May 1997. Carrie Crowley and Boyzone member Ronan Keating were the presenters of the show.

American-led group Katrina and The Waves, representing the United Kingdom, were the winners of the contest with the song Love Shine a Light, written by that band's lead guitarist Kimberley Rew (whom didn't appear on stage), and Marc Roberts representing the host country came second with Mysterious Woman. Despite being the runner-up, it remarkably received only one 12-point score, which came from the United Kingdom.

The UK spokesman Colin Berry remarked: "You're going to like this one: Ireland, twelve points!" causing Terry Wogan to reply: "Well, tit for tat!" The winning song scored an unprecedented 227 points; it received points from all participating countries, including five sets of 10 points and a record-breaking ten sets of the maximum 12 points. Love Shine a Light is still regarded as one of the most successful Eurovision winners, and was the closing song in the medley that opened the 50th anniversary show Congratulations in Copenhagen in 2005, and the Eurovision 2006 semi-final in Athens. With this victory, the United Kingdom has five Eurovision wins and it is, to date, the country's last win in the Contest.

After the controversy over the pre-qualifier in 1996, the EBU introduced a new system for 1997: countries with the lowest average scores over the previous four years would be relegated from the 1997 contest, and those with the lowest averages over the previous five years would be excluded from future contests (save that every country so excluded for one year would automatically be allowed to participate the following year), with so many countries being omitted as would reduce the number of participants each year to 25. 

Televoting was also tested in 5 countries (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and United Kingdom) with the remaining 20 continuing to use the juries.

Belgium, Finland, North Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia were relegated due to a low average of points, while Israel declined to participate, as the Contest was held on its Holocaust Remembrance Day, granting a reprieve to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would otherwise have been excluded owing to its low point average over the previous four years. It would also be Italy's last appearance until its return in 2011.

1997 also brought the first year of the fan page Eurovisionhouse.nl's Barbara Dex Award, which was awarded to the Maltese entrant Debbie Scerri.

Gallery

The 1997 Scoreboard

A callcard issued by RTE to celebrate Eurovision 1997

A callcard issued by RTE to celebrate Eurovision 1997

Participants

Draw	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Translation	Place	Points
01	Cyprus	Hara & Andreas Konstantinou	Mana Mou	Greek	Motherland	5	98
02	Türkiye	Şebnem Paker and Grup Ethnic	Dinle	Turkish	Listen	3	121
03	Norway	Tor Endresen	San Francisco	Norwegian	--	24	0
04	Austria	Bettina Soriat	One Step	German		21	12
05	Ireland	Marc Roberts	Mysterious Woman	English		2	157
06	Slovenia	Tanja Ribič	Zbudi se	Slovene	Wake up	10	60
07	Switzerland	Barbara Berta	Dentro di me	Italian	Inside of me	22	5
08	The Netherlands	Mrs. Einstein	Niemand heeft nog tijd	Dutch	No one has time anymore	22	5
09	Italy	Jalisse	Fiumi di parole	Italian	Rivers of words	4	114
10	Spain	Marcos Llunas	Sin rencor	Spanish	Without rancor	6	96
11	Germany	Bianca Shomburg	Zeit	German	Time	18	22
12	Poland	Anna Maria Jopek	Ale jestem	Polish	But I am	11	54
13	Estonia	Maarja-Liis Ilus	Keelatud maa	Estonian	Forbidden land	8	82
14	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Alma Čardžić	Goodbye	Bosnian	--	18	22
15	Portugal	Célia Lawson	Antes do adeus	Portuguese	Before goodbye	24	0
16	Sweden	Blond	Bara hon älskar mig	Swedish	If only she loves me	14	36
17	Greece	Marianna Zorba	Horepse	Greek	Dance	12	39
18	Malta	Debbie Scerri	Let Me Fly	English	--	9	66
19	Hungary	V.I.P.	Miért kell, hogy elmenj?	Hungarian	Why do you have to go?	12	39
20	Russia	Alla Pugacheva	Primadonna	Russian	--	15	33
21	Denmark	Kølig Kaj	Stemmen i mit liv	Danish	The voice in my life	16	25
22	France	Fanny	Sentiments songes	French	Sentimental feelings	7	95
23	Croatia	E.N.I.	Probudi me	Croatian	Awaken me	17	24
24	United Kingdom	Katrina and The Waves	Love Shine a Light	English	--	1	227
25	Iceland	Paul Oscar	Minn hinsti dans	Icelandic	My final dance	20	18

Hara & Andreas Konstantinou

Şebnem Paker & Grup Ethnic

Tor Edresen

Bettina Soriat

Marc Roberts

Tanja Ribič

Barbara Berta

Mrs. Einstein

Jalisse

Marcos Llunas

Bianca Shomburg

Anna Maria Jopek

Maarja-Liis Ilus

Alma Čardžić

Célia Lawson

Blond

Marianna Zorba

Debbie Scerri

V.I.P.

Alla Pugacheva

Kølig Kaj

Fanny

E.N.I.

Katrina and the Waves

Paul Oscar

Trivia

• With the rule change of having optional instruments on stage, four countries used playback entirely: Ireland, Austria, Germany, and Croatia.
  • In addition, Greece's Horepse was the last song to feature band members playing alongside the orchestra.
  • Love Shine a Light was the last winner that used an orchestral arrangement, as Diva the following year would use a backing track.
  • This was the last year in which the Icelandic, Russian, Bosnian, Austrian, Danish, Swiss, Greek, Maltese, and Italian entries would use an orchestral arrangement (the first six due to relegation, the next two voluntarily doing so, and Italy's withdrawal).
• This was the first Irish held contest since 1971 which didn't feature Noel Kelehan as the musical director, as he was ill at the time of the competition.
• RAI only participated in this edition because they missed the deadline to withdraw from it, therefore they picked Jalisse as the winners of Sanremo to represent them. It was the first time since 1972 where both the winning song and artist were pulled out of Sanremo to represent the country.
• Marie-Claire Vionnet, who acted as scrutineer for this edition, was best known as the longtime right-hand partner of former Executive Supervisor Frank Naef from 1978 to 1992.
• This was the first year from the 20th century to be featured on Eurovision Again.

Videos

Eurovision Song Contest 1997 (No commentary)